Brief Introduction: Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park is located in Linze country and 40 km away from west of  Zhangye city . Here ‘Dan’ means red . Thousands of colorful mountain ranges, especially red ones, distribute in this national geological park, which are parts of Qilian mountain. The colorful mountain ranges stretch about 40 km from east to west and 5-10 km from south to north. The sea level here is from 2000-3800 m.The local Yugur minority people call these strange mountain scenery ‘aran lagda’ in their own language (means red mountain). Normally now local people just call them rainbow mountain.

Zhangye Danxia landform was formed 6 million years ago. The geological structure of Danxia is from accumulation of rocks. The red sandstones undergo a complex process by long-term weathering stripping , water erosion and the influence from natural environment such as special geological structure ,climate change ,wind force.Then many isolated mountain peaks and steep rocks are formed by plenty of red sandstones.

In April 2002 the local farmer , Mr. Lei Xingyi, came across some people from other provinces to the place where he got used to pasturing and recommended them to visit the colorful mountains. After their visiting ‘domino effect’ seemed to be caused. Under the introduction of tourists and photographers more and more people , especially many cast and directors ,were attracted here. Many movies were shot here. Especially in 2008 the movie which is called‘A Simple Noodle Story 'or'A woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop’was taken by famous directorZhang Yimou. Even now when tourists take a shuttle bus  to visit Danxia , the noodle shopused in the movie can be seen closely and clearly. After this movie was shot, Zhangye Danxia  landform becomes more popular little by little. In November 2005 Zhangye Danxia National Gelogical Park was elected as one of ‘China’s seven most beautiful Danxia area’ by China geographic magazine and 34 national medias. In 2011 it was rated as one of ’10 amazing geographical wonders of the world’ by national geographical magazine of U. S.  In 2015 it was selected by many well-known websites as one of 25 dreaming travel destinations all over the world .

The level: National AAAA

Admission Fee: 55RMB/person,Shuttle Bus Fee: 20 RMB/person;

Selling Tickets Time：(Just for reference .This will be updated promptly if changed)

Date	Time
January 1 --- February 29	07:00---17:00
March 1---April 10	06:30---18:00
April 11--- April 27	06:00---18:00
April 28 --- August 31	05:30---19:00
September1--- October 31	06:30---18:00
November 1--- December 31	07:30---17:00

Better Seasons to Visit: May— October

Visiting Time Normally: around 2-3 hrs （depends on your interest)

Visiting Tips: 1,The beautiful pictures normally rely on clear and sunny day. If cloudy day happens during your visiting Danxia, you probably can not get the expecting photos which are as bright as those of propaganda photos. So as an experienced tourists you should have a certain mental preparation.(After raining it is really a nice choice to visit and get beautiful pictures.)

2, Please prepare necessary things for variable weather in different seasons, such as  water, sun glasses, sun cream , umbrella,  and so on.

3，The shuttle buses will transfer tourists from this platform to next. Normally the shifting time is 15 minutes for each platform. But after the shuttle bus drops you  to different platforms, you still need climb upstairs and walk more to see different sceneries. So probably it is very necessary to prepare some snacks if you need more energy to make up anytime and a walking stick if your legs are not so well.

4, If you would like to watch sunrise and sunset here, you may choose the hotels near the Danxia  landform area to stay. It will be more convenient.

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